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incorporating the SA Rock Digest

Disco Fever continued …

Found this old review from the SA Rock Digest. Issue number 23 (7th July 1999).

Rubin Carrin seems to be an anagram of Brian Currin … oh I was so clever, then!

DISCO FEVER

Do you remember the mid-to-late 70s with great affection?
Platform shoes, sessions, roadhouses, etc?
Bands like HOT R.S. and Buffalo?

If not, then ignore this next section…

OK, you’re still here … good.

Derek Smith from Gallo has compiled a 2CD set called Disco Fever which features some great South African disco/dance tracks from the 70s. These 2 discs are filled to the max with music … over 150 minutes of music, memories and magic.

Been looking for the full-length version of “Eloise Concerto” by Rouge?
Well here it is, all 17 minutes 32 seconds of Zane Cronje’s rearrangement of the classic Barry Ryan hit, “Eloise”. Wonderful stuff.

Remember Neil Cloud, the drummer from Rabbitt, combining the Marmalade’s 1970 chart-topper “Reflections Of My Life” with Ennio Morricone’s theme from the Clint Eastwood spaghetti western “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”? Well its here, over 17 minutes of it and featuring the voice of Rene Veldsman (of Via Afrika).

HOT R.S. took their name from the initials of their first album the House Of The Rising Sun and there are no less than 4 examples of the orgasmic disco rock that Donna Summer first pioneered and Dan Hill, Kevin Kruger and friends made their own. Tracks from all three of HOT R.S.’s albums are included here.

Peter Vee’s Buffalo took Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild” and “Magic Carpet Ride” to new heights of disco/rock and both are included here.

I don’t know much about Disco Rock Machine, except that Trevor Rabin was involved. Their version of the Kinks “You Really Got Me” is great, with some punchy guitar.

A track I’ve been searching for on CD for a long time, has been John Ireland’s “Living Inside My Head”. Well, the search is over, as the full 6.25 album version is here on this CD. John’s rearrangement of the “Greensleeves” melody is superb and that whistling synthesizer pre-dates the “X-Files” Theme by 2 decades or so.

Also on this excellent compilation are Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse’s “Burnout”, Hiroshima’s “People Like Us” and Harari’s “Give”.

So buy this CD, put on your platforms, grab your cherrie and take yourself on a magic carpet ride with the delta queen to the garden of Eden.

OK, the rest of you musical snobs can join us again.

— Rubin Carrin

PS Gallo has kindly supplied the Digest a copy of this CD to give away to one lucky subscriber.

So send in a short e-mail justifying why you could not live another day without having this CD in your collection. The most original and humorous one wins the prize. The editor’s decision is final.